The tribute trade from Southeast Asia entered China through
Canton (Guangzhou), while embassies from the Ryukyus arrived at
Quanzhou in Fujian province. (A third port of entry at Ningbo was
used by Japan.) Despite the greater frequency of Ryukyu embassies,
almost one a year from 1435 to 1475, Canton was able more or less to
monopolise the Nanyang trade. Fujian merchants who had previously
been successful in developing new trade routes were thus particularly
disadvantaged by the ban on private trade. Some took to smuggling,
with the connivance of local gentry and officials. Some moved to
Canton, or to the Ryukyus in order to profit from the tributary trade.
Others, as we have seen, migrated to one of the Chinese settlements
already established in Southeast Asia.^4
Two things should be noted about Chinese trade and settlement
in Southeast Asia at this time. The first is that the number of Chinese
involved in the trading networks supplying the Java and Ryukyu trib-
utary trade, and the actual number of settlements, both increased,
though most Chinese communities numbered in the hundreds, rather
than the thousands. Though Melaka dominated peninsula Malaya,
there were substantial Chinese settlements at Pattani and smaller ones
at places like Pahang and Kelantan, and on the north Java coast at
Semarang and Cirebon. The Chinese presence in Cambodia and Siam
also increased, and there is evidence of Chinese in the Philippines. In
every community intermarriage occurred and many resident Chinese
adopted elements of local culture. Others, however, retained a more
traditional Chinese lifestyle, particularly where family ties with home
villages remained strong. Many Chinese in coastal Java, Sumatra and
Malaya, it should be recalled, were already Muslims and may actually
have assisted in the Islamisation of Indonesia.
The second point is that these Chinese communities played no
part at all in the foreign policy of the Ming dynasty, even though
Chinese merchants often accompanied official Southeast Asian
embassies. From the point of view of the Ming court, Chinese living
outside the frontiers of China were living beyond the pale of Chinese
A Short History of China and Southeast Asia